Martinez Already Faces Democrat Hostility, Tests

Bob Martinez`s administration will hardly be out of its infancy before he begins to face some very tough tests.

As the smoke of the 1986 election quickly blows away, the new governor is expected to begin work immediately -- even before his inauguration in January -- looking for waste in the state budget.

Throughout the campaign, the 51-year-old former Tampa mayor insisted that he could find 5 percent of ``fat`` -- $800 million -- in Florida`s $16.5 billion budget.

Indeed, the governor-elect is guaranteed to be on a collision course with a Democrat-dominated Legislature that will begin working on its own version of a state spending bill within a few weeks and has already voiced doubts about working with a Republican chief executive.

``It`s going to be a stalemate,`` predicted House Appropriations Chairman Sam Bell, an Ormond Beach Democrat who was a key supporter of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Pajcic. ``What I hear is a guy who wants to cut spending. That`s absolutely a fantasy.``

Martinez may face his greatest hostility in the House, where Democratic leaders were key cogs in the Pajcic campaign machine.

The governor-elect has been particularly critical of Bell`s suggestion that Florida may need to look at a state income tax to raise new revenues within the next decade. Indeed, during the waning weeks of the campaign Martinez introduced Bell as an issue -- hinting that Pajcic might not fight against a proposed constitutional change to allow a state personal income tax.

And, while he`s trying to tighten the state`s belt, Martinez is expected to clean house in many state agencies and begin fighting to give more authority -- especially in the area of growth management -- back to local government.

Being only the second Republican elected governor since Reconstruction, Martinez can expect to get pressure from GOP colleagues to increase their numbers on the hundreds of government advisory boards scattered around the state.

After all, Florida has been under uninterrupted Democratic rule for 16 years -- since Democrat Reubin Askew defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Claude Kirk in 1970.

As Florida`s first governor of Hispanic origin since statehood was granted in 1845, Martinez is also expected to draw more South Florida Hispanics -- a key in his election success -- into state government.

Yet Martinez will also have to offer prizes to the conservative Democrats who helped form the successful coalition that put him in office -- and will be necessary if he hopes to win a second four-year term in 1990.

Elected on a theme of bringing conservative business management to state government, he will quickly ask drugstore magnate Jack Eckerd to head up a commission to ferret out waste in state spending -- a role Eckerd played once before for Democrat Askew.

Martinez has also vowed to put an end to the millions of dollars in ``turkeys`` -- legislators` pet projects -- that go into the state budget each year. And, he promised to force lawmakers to hold all their last-minute budget negotiations in the ``sunshine`` -- or in public. If they don`t, he has vowed to go to the public seeking a constitutional amendment mandating an end to secret budget negotiations.

After taking only a few days off, the man who becomes Florida`s next governor on Jan. 6 will begin work on selecting his staff. He is expected to immediately take a close look at those who head major agencies. During his campaign, he targeted the Departments of Transportation and Health and Rehabilitative Services for immediate review. Both agency heads are directly responsible to the governor`s office.

Martinez also plans to see HRS split into two agencies -- one for welfare and one for health -- with an emphasis on getting Floridians off long-term welfare programs.

However, to remove agency heads that are under control of the Democrat- dominated Cabinet -- like the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Natural Resources -- Martinez will need the vote of three out of the six Cabinet members.